Eressa Stiles
Born on the terraformed world of Vilarus Prime to a military family, Eressa had the distinction of being raised on a virtual paradise. Both her parents were retired by the time they'd settled down to have her, and as such doted on her constantly, and with the resources at their disposal she had tremendous freedom in exploring hobbies and interests as she was growing up. It's no real surprise that Eressa became interested in the military, given her upbringing. However, though her parents were both Guard veterans, Eressa became enamored with the idea of commanding her own starship. With her parents' blessing, she enlisted in the Concordat Navy at 14, the youngest age allowed. Eressa pushed herself pretty hard at the Charon Academy, and was gunning for the Officer's Track as of her first year there. Eressa had a hard time at the Academy; the extremely strict and regimental lifestyle and demands of the Officer's Track were considerably worse than she'd been prepared for. More than once she came close to quitting entirely, but encouragement from her parents helped her push through it, as well as a younger man who attended the Academy with her, a Human named Vilhe. Though she failed several key tests in her final years, due to her aptitude in other areas of command she was allowed to re-take them and ended up passing and becoming an Ensign. Eressa and Vilhe grew closer together during their time at the Academy, and went out of their way to keep connected even after their respective postings. The two ended up tying the knot a few years later, and Eressa gave birth to their daughter, Lessa, back on her homeworld of Vilarus Prime. Eressa, being far more career military than Vilhe, agreed to stay posted in order to provide for the family while Vilhe took a leave of absence to care for Lessa. Eressa was promoted to Commander and XO of her own vessel, fighting in the Onurian Border Wars when Eressa was still a child. By the time the Onurian Border Wars were settled, Eressa was a teenager and thinking about enlisting. Eressa, who had almost never even met her daughter until now, took an extended leave of absence and cared for her until she'd reached the age of 15, when she formally decided to enlist in the Navy like her mother. The two remained in contact during Lessa's time at Charon, and Eressa was quite open and honest with her daughter about how hard of a time ''she'd ''had back at the Academy. The two grew close for the first time in these years. Though not directly, Eressa and Lessa both ended up serving in the ever-increasing Vorsaat conflict. Eressa was very proud of her daughter's promotion to Lieutenant, while she herself had become Captain of her own ship, having finally realized her dream. When Lessa made the decision to retire into a Settlement System, Eressa was supportive, but insisted on slipping Lessa a comm unit to take with her. Normally such a thing would be disallowed by treaty, but Eressa was willing to take the risk to at least stay in communication with her daughter. She'd spent most of her life not being physically present, taking away the ability to at least talk was too much to bear.